Sakura of the Akatsuki
by BismuthKilljoy
Summary: Madra kidnaps and convinces Sakura to join the Akatsuki. Five years later she's a S-Class criminal, with and attitude to match. When she meets back up with Sasuke in order to capture the nine tails and things get complicated.
1. Chapter 1 Not Our Sakura

**Hey guys! This is my first fic! FANFIC IS BEING STUPID AND WON'T LET ME EDIT THE ORIGINAL... Therefore this is the actual story. Ignor the one title Sakura the Akatsuki, I can't edit it at all, delete it or anything... so ya... PLEASE ENJOY! XD**

_-Thoughts-_

Chapter One-Not Our Sakura

She smiles darkly as she watches the scene bellow her, double checking her chakra, making sure it is fully repressed. The irony of the debate going on 30 feet below her is hysterical in itself. Not that she felt very much like laughing.

A blond male, around 24 years old, stands in the center of the clearing arguing animatedly with his ANBU team. The other three members are standing in a semi-circle facing him. He is getting more and more animated by the second. He is obviously distressed with their reactions.

"I'm sure I saw her!" he says loudly flailing his arms. "She was across the street walking in this direction!" She knew he'd seen her. In fact that was the whole point. She knew he just couldn't resist following her, if it meant the chance to convince her to come back. Her smile widens at the thought briefly, then disappears altogether.

"Naruto, I think you were just imagining it." one of his teammates, a female with long dark hair and pearl colored eyes interjects shyly, "I mean we had just finished an S-class mission. You were probably just tired." She walks over and touches his arm affectionately.

"No!" he replies in a low voice, "I'm sure she was real. It's hard to miss bright pink hair." At this the rest of his team are quiet. The silence stays for a while, and then it is broken by the pale dark haired boy.

" I know this has been hard for you Dickless, but you've got to move on. Ugly isn't coming back. And neither is he" Naruto looks up at him, pain clearly in his eyes. _Pathetic_. He looks away from his group. A breeze blows in the field ruffling the leaves. The woman hiding in the trees watches him take a deep breath and turn back to his team. He puts on his ANBU mask before saying, "I won't give up hope. Let's go" The others nod putting their masks on.

"Sakura." A deep voice sounds beside her as the team prepares to leave.

The girl smirks at her partner, gives him a single nod, "I know". And she silently jumps down to the forest floor below, leaving a trail of rustling leaves behind her. She releases her chakra hold just as the group turns around, in fighting stances.

Silence follows as they take in her appearance. She smiles a small dark grin. The mouse masked woman whispers something along the lines of 'oh kami-sama.' in disappointed surprise. Sakura's smile deepens at that. _Is that disappointment I hear? Funny, I was feeling the same thing about them. This group is just pathetic. _Naruto steps forward, removing his fox mask.

"… Sakura-chan?" He questions taking another step forward his eyes wide with surprise. The woman looks at him with dead eyes. _That's right trust me Naruto. I won't hurt you… much._They stare at each other. Naruto seems to be at a loss for words. Sakura just stares blankly into his bright blue eyes.

"What are you doing here Sakura?"

Sakura slowly turns her head to stare at the person who spoke, the tiger mask. _Nenji. _

"Hello Nenji." She says, now staring into his foggy white eyes behind the mask. _His __Byakugan is activated _the girl notes_._ _Not that it'll do much_she mentally scoffs at the thought of a mear ANBU being able to take her on.

His patience seems to be in desperate need of a tune up because he snaps,"Sakura, I asked you a question"

She watches his teeth grind together in what she assumes to be annoyance. _Pathetic. _

"And I deliberately didn't answer it" she dead-pans in response. Nenji glares as she continues, "It'll just make you aggressive and I don't really feel like fighting right now. Not that it would be much of a fight..."

Nenji's chakra flairs at her words. She smirks, a spark of amusement in her eyes. _That all you got? Pathetic. _Nenji growls impatiently and looks at Naruto questioningly. Naruto just shakes his head. Nenji looks upset. _Ah, so I was right. Narutois the captain. That means they need permission to attack. Sucks for you Nenji._ A small smirk appears on her plump lips as silence covers the area.

"Sakura, why…" Naruto looks her up and down with hurt eyes, Sakura turns her head to look at him "...Why are you wearing… _that?_" he asks confused.

_I can almost feel the pain in his voice. What a weakling. Pathetic really. _She looks down at her attire. Black cloak with red clouds, red nail polish, ring on her left ring finger. Long hair with bangs hanging in her dark emerald eyes. Straw hat with white strips hanging loosely at her hip, large battle ax strapped to her back. She doesn't reply.

"You're not-" The blond seems to choke on his word before recovering, "You're not part of the Akatsuki are you?" again she remains silent, letting her pink bangs cover her eyes, a tight, evil smile forming on her red lips.

"You aren't, are you?" he asks again, desperately. She slowly raises her eyes to his. And laughs. Her laugh sounds strangled and forced. Hysterical. The ANBU team looks at her alarmed. Hinata looks uneasily at her cousin, who has narrowed his eyes. Sai just cocks his head. Naruto cringes at the crazy sounding laughter. This isn't the Sakura they know. She hunches over holding her stomach and wipes the tears from her eyes. Then, just as quickly as the laughter began it was over. Then she glares at Naruto. He steps back scared at her behavior, she has never glared at anyone before, let only with this vigor.

"No fucking shit Sherlock. You're just a stupid and wishful as ever, I see." She says glaring maliciously at him.

"n-nn-no, you can't…" a voice sounds from behind Naruto, the mouse has removed her mask, revealing Hinata. She steps forward slightly, "Sakura you just can't-"

Suddenly Sakura is gone. In a flash she's right in front of Hinata. Hinata gasps, stopping from finishing her sentence and fumbles backward. But Sakura pushes forward.

"I can" the Akatsuki says lowly towering over Hinata, "and I did." Hinata'seyes widen and her mouth gapes. Then just as quickly, Sakura is gone and Neji is in front of Hinata, kunai in hand, eyes blazing.

"Don't touch her!" he spits out protectively pushing Hinata out of Sakura's view. Sakura chuckles,

"And you would stop me? _You? _HA!" she merely rolls her eyes at the thought. Nenji fumes and whispers earnestly to Naruto,

"What are we doing?" Naruto turn to look at him, a confused look on his face "You heard her, she's Akatsuki now. We have orders to kill any members we see! Why are we just standing here?" Naruto'seyes flick across the feild to where Sakura is standing. She waves in a mocking manner, a smirk on her face.

"Nenji nii-san, I think we should let Narutodecide what to do, he is the captian." Hinataspeaks, her face still pale from the sudden move from Sakura.

"I vote we capture Ugly and let the interogation squad deal with her" Saisays blankly. all eyes turn to Naruto who is still gazing at Sakura.

"…I can't" Naruto says, looking toward his team, "she was my best friend. My team mate. I love her like my sister." There is a short silence.

"No, you don't." Nenji says Naruto looks at him. "You loved the Sakura we knew. This woman isn't Sakura. She's Akatsuki, and we have to kill her." Naruto glances at Sakura who is just standing there watching patiently, a blank expression on her face. A mask. _Nenji is right, _she thinks easily hearing their conversation, _I'm not the old, pathetic Sakura. I'm better. Stronger. Smarter. I know my destiny now, and it involves all of Konoha dead._

"We have to kill her Naruto." Hinata says taking his hand. He meets her eyes for a second.

"I can't." he says forcefully looking away. "Friends don't back out on Friend, Kakashi taught us that"

"Fine, then our best bet is to leave" Sai states. Nenji nods, Hinata looks at Naruto, who's eyes flicker with pain.

"Right. Let's go." he says with authority and the team starts to leave.

"oh, I'm afraid that just isn't going to fly." The ANBUstop in their tracks at the breathy voice. Naruto turns to look at The Akatsuki member, eyes now fierce with passion. the rest of the team slowly turns to look at her. she starts to walk toward the group.

"See, I've got this mission." She states flatly walking toward the Fox Container. "It involves you being captured." She says taking out her huge ax. Naruto's eyes widen. The Pinkette continues, "I really don't want to fight, but being as smart as I am, I know it's not an option. So can we just get this over with please?" she finishes stopping walking. She is now no more than five feet from him, ax resting on her soldier, hip cocked, eyebrow raised.

Nenji narrows his eyes, "you're going to take on four ANBU by yourself?" he asks suspiciously.

She turns her cold gaze from Naruto to him, "I was an ANBU captain before I left, and a Sannin. Or did you forget, Nenji-san" she mocks dryly.

Before Nenji can reply Naruto steps forward, "As was I, Sakura." He says stress clear in his voice, eyes now slited and red. The scratch marks on his cheeks becoming more visible. his fangs elongating.

"Yes Naruto, but the difference is, I've gotten stronger" Sakura retorts grin slowly spreading across her features, "I've gotten stronger than You or Sasuke! While you have been content to stay as you were" she scoffs, grinning largely.

"Sakura..." Naruto starts sympathetically, eyes returning to normal.

Sakura glares, smile wiped from her face. H_e pities me! How dare he! _

"Don't you pity me! I should be pitting YOU! I AM THE STONGE ONE AND YOU ARE JUST PATHETIC! Who's weak now, Naruto! Who's the one being over shadowed by their teammate! Who's the one who is the strongest shinobi of their age, the brightest! ME! AND I WILL BE THE SRONGEST TO EVER LIVE!" she yells at Naruto pointing her ax at his face breathing deeply. _Oh no. I've let my emotions out again. Uchiha-sempi is always telling me not to do that. Damn, and he's watching this too. He's totally gonna kill me tomorrow at training. Well shit._

Naruto looks at her silently. The beauty she had become in the last five years. The way her hair flowed loosely about her waist, the way her arms felt none of the weight of the ax, the coldness of her eyes, currently light with the craziness she was experiencing.

"You have changed Sakura" he says sadly, adding in thought, Y_ou've changed for the worse. What happened to you?_ Sakura looks at him confused then lowers her ax as she composes her emotions into a blank mask once again. _That's better_, she thinks feeling the comfort of being able to keep her emotions and thoughts to herself. The ax gives a loud THUD as it hits the dirt, making a small crater. She waits for him to continue.

"But I can't go with you. I'm set to be the Hokage in a week and no way in hell am I gonna miss it." he says evenly. "Believe it." he says firmly taking a fighting stance.

Sakura looks at him with dead eyes. Straightening up and picking up her ax she says "Well then prepare to be taken by force, Kyubi."

**A/N: I tryed to keep Sakura's personalitly as close to her original (i.e. talkitive and blunt with random bursts of anger)** **but more evil and crazy. I also tryed to make Naruto darker (both of his best friends have left him for power- I figured that would make him kinda depressed) and Hinata braver. I don't know how well it worked. Ha ha. Let me know what you think! **

**~Your Bismuth Killjoy, Lexie~**


	2. Chapter 2 Uchihas

**A/N: this chapter was hard for me to write. I guess the scenes in it were just awkward for me. So hang in there till the end I promise things pick up there!**

Chapter 2- Uchihas

To say it was an easy fight would be a lie. Naruto knew that. In fact it would be a huge lie. Sakura had become something no one wanted her to be. She hadn't been lying when she said she was stronger. She was way stronger than he thought she could ever be. She had become something no one had any hope of changing. He came to this conclusion as his team limped home contemplating how they barely escaped. What scared Naruto the most was that he felt they had only seen a piece of her power, that she had just been toying with them the whole time.

"I can't believe Sakura would do that!" Hinata says holding her arm, which was bending at a weird angle.

"I couldn't either," Sai comments, " Until she tried, and almost succeeded in decapitating me."

There is a short silence. Nenji has a serious injury to his left eye, several broken ribs and a nasty gash on his back; Hinata has a badly broken arm, three deep cuts on her leg and a broken foot; Sai's right arm is cut to ribbons, has thirteen broken bones and an almost severed finger; Naruto has a grand total of 27 broken bones, one of which is his upper femur, a concussion, several deep cuts all over and a deep gash on his forehead. Sakura had done a number on them.

"Well, at least she's alive" Naruto says grimly, wincing as his leg throbs.

Nenji grunts, "I'm not sure that's a good thing Naruto…" he says bluntly.

Naruto is silent. Currently the whole team is riding on one of Sai's giant bird drawings toward Konoha. Sai sent a messenger bird ahead of them to warn the village about their state, telling them to have immediate medical attention ready, as well as telling them about Sakura and what she had become. _Poor Kakashi _Naruto thinks, _he thought Sakura was being held captive. He'll be crushed. _That's what they had all thought, that she was being held against her will by Madra Uchiha, who had been seen leaving the village, an unconvinced pink haired-nin in his grasp. Naruto was still having a hard time believing it, actually. How could sweet Sakura turn that heartless? That cruel? That _powerful_? What had they done to her?

As he sits contemplating the strange way she had acted, Hinata goes around treating the most severe injuries of the group with her medic jutsu. Sakura had severely injured both Sai and Naruto- seeing as they were at the front lines, while Nenji was long range. Hinata, being the medic-nin on the team had kept her distance and managed to avoid most of her attacks. _She was so fast!_ She thinks. _A speed to rival Lee's or even Sasuke's ._She shudders at the memory of Sakura slipping past Naruto's defense and of appearing in front of her out of thin air, delivering a blow that she only just managed to block with her arm. If it had hit the intended target, Hinata's skull would have been crushed and she would be dead. What scared her the most about the incident though, had been Sakura's eyes. _So cold. Empty and dead. Like someone had taken the meaning of living out of them._ She shudders again at the memory of those green orbs staring into her own. And how she fought Naruto! It was as if she could care less about him_! As if he was a rat on the street_. Hinata feels tears build up in her eyes. _As if we all were rats on the street. _She thinks tears spilling over. Her Green chakra goes out in the middle of healing Naruto's concussion. She cries silently tears dripping down her face leaving wet streaks.

"Hinata?" Naruto questions looking at her face. She lets out a sob. He reaches out to her, bringing her to his chest where she buries her face and cries harder. "I know." He says stroking her hair gently, "It'll be ok. I'll get the real Sakura back, Dattebayo." he says lightly kissing the top of her head. A single tear rolls down his cheek as he looks back toward the forest they had barely escaped. Nenji calmly averts his one working eye. He's pretty used to the idea of them being together now, not that he was happy about it... The team sits quietly for the rest of the way, reminded of similar promise that had yet to become fulfilled.

* * *

Haruno Sakura was pissed off. _Those little shits got away!_ She thinks as she storms down the hallway of the base. _I almost had them too! I was about to put a genjustu on them that would knock them out for days. Uhg! _She thinks punching the wall, which immediately crumbles to little bits, leaving a huge only she had seen that stupid kunai coming instead of bantering on about her strength and new jutsus like an idiot, they wouldn't have gotten away. She grumbles all the way down the hall following her partner. When the reach the end of the hall, her partner pushes open the double wooden doors leaving them open for her.

"Thanks" she grits out in irritation as she closes them behind her.

"Aa" comes the reply. She just rolls her eyes at the remark. Typical. _Pathetic, he can't even form a whole sentence. _She mentally sighs _not like I should have expected anything else. _

The room they are now in is large and round. The walls are lined with doors. A drop of water drips to the floor from the ceiling_._ They're far underground. She can almost feel the layers of dirt above their heads, putting pressure on her lungs, making it hard to breathe. _Uhg, the soon were outta here the better._ Her partner stands just in front of her, waiting patiently for something. Still impatient and bitter from her failure Sakura pushes past him roughly, walking toward one of the doors.

"Come on we better go see Madra." She says annoyed. Pathetic. She's pathetic. Couldn't even capture Naruto. What kind of shinobi was she? She silently promised to train even harder now that she knew this.

"Hn" he replies. She hears his footsteps start following her own.

"Would you stop using such goddamn unresponsive words?" she grits out annoyed. That's all they ever do- 'Aa' and 'Hn'. What the hell kind of language was that anyway? Stupid Uchihas. Anti-social freaks. _Pathetic morons_. She sighs; she can practically feel the eternal sharingan on her back as a result of her last comment. _Let's not forget their horrible tempers too. Uchihas do NOT like to be bossed around._

"Keeps your creepy-red-eye-thingy to yourself would ya? Kami!" she mumbles under her breath in annoyance. She hears a quiet chuckle from behind her. She just keeps stalking forward, ignoring him, toward one of the doors.

"You're… entertaining… when you're angry." He states in a mildly amused tone. She just digs her nails into her palm, relishing the distraction the pain brings her from her anger. They continue across the large room in silence, not uncommon for them, even natural.

She wrenches open the door and starts down the hallway toward Uchiha Madra's room/ office. The Uchiha follows silently. The hallway is filthy and wet; she can feel the pressure here also. It sends Goosebumps across her arms. She's thankful that she's wearing her cloak. _He would frown upon such 'expression of emotion'._ Finally they reach the door that is the entrance into the room. She knocks twice, the sound echoing down the corridor behind them.

A smooth "Come in." sounds from the other side and the two Akatsuki enter the room. Madra Uchiha sits at a large desk covered in paper. As Sakura and the Uchiha approach him his eyes, the Eternal Sharingan and Rinnegan flip up to the two members, showing through the two holes of his mask.

"I guess this means that you didn't catch the nine tails, correct?" Madra says in a business-like manner, shuffling some of the papers on his desk.

Sakura folds her arms across her chest and turns her head, mumbling under her breath.

"Aa" comes the reply of the stoic man beside her. Madra sighs and shakes his head.

"Why were there problems? You should have been able to take him by yourself, Itachi. Sakura should have been able to as well. Together it should have been no problem." The leader of the Akatsuki says, his voice sounding more surprised than disappointed.

Sakura grumbles some more and whispers something that sounds a lot like 'pathetic'. Itachi just stares at Madra, his eternal sharingan showing no emotion.

"She got conceded and let them get away." He says simply. Madra seems to understand that this translates into 'I didn't help, it was her fault' and turns to Sakura.

"Well it's obvious you aren't ready to be part of this organization yet, then if you can handle an single ANBU team by yourself." Madra states in a demeaning voice. Sakura's head whips up, eyes wide at his words.

"I promise I'll train harder! I know im pathetic now, but give me a few more weeks! I get him then! Promise! I can be part of this! Please Uchiha-sama! I swore my loyalty to you! I will do anything for you, just don't make me leave!" she pleads eyes shining with purpose. Itachi looks at her from the corner of his eye, expressionless. Madra looks down at Sakura, considering.

"Very well." He says, his voice sounding business- ike, "Itachi, you will keep training Sakura until she is ready to take on the nine tails and his ANBU team." Sakura, once again composing her features, nodded politely.

"Hn" the Uchiha said bored, finally looking away from the kunoichi. Sakura turns to leave, mimicking her sensei's expression with precision.

"But…" Madra says pausing. Sakura turns to address him eyes flashing with with held anger at the catch he was about to state, "I expect one new member by the end of the week. It's time you got a partner." Sakura hesitated before nodding again, her eyes slightly worried. _Where the hell am I gonna find someone strong enough __**and**__willing to join Akatsuki?_ With that, she turns and exits the room, Itachi following close behind her. There is no speech as the student and master walk side by side through the long hallways of the main base. Nor are any words exchanged as the exit the base and head out toward the middle of the forest that surrounds it. The walk for miles as the sun sets behind them. It's around 10:00 before Itachi finally speaks.

"Sleep. Be up at 5:30 for training." Sakura doesn't reply, turning away from the Uchiha. She flashes several quick hand seals.

"_Doton __Idaina keisei no jutsu!" _she states making giant rocks come from the ground to form a complex looking shelter. She then proceeds to enter said shelter and go to sleep. Itachi merely looks at her blankly before laying out his sleeping roll on the ground and falling asleep.

Sakura awakes the next morning to the presence of a foreign chakra. _Oh my god it huge! Almost as big as Uchiha-sempi's!_ She immediately springs from her rock-and-sleeping-mat bed and returns the rocks to the ground with a quick jutsu. Looking toward where Itachi had slept, she finds only an empty mat. A quick scan of the area shows her that he is in a clearing to the east about two miles away. The foreign chakra is moving toward him at an incredible speed. _Itachi could be in trouble! _With that she takes off running toward her master.

She arrives just outside of the clearing, masking her chakra. She didn't know what was going on, and if the blond idiot had taught her anything other than how to fail, it was that rushing in head first never ended well. So she hides in the darkness of the early morning covered by trees, peaking into the field.

Itachi is standing in the center of the clearing looking bored, as usual, his ever present eternal sharringan focused on the direction the chakra is coming from.

_That chakra… _Sakura thinks confused, _it seems…familiar somehow…_ _like I should recognize who it belongs to... _

She spikes her chakra just enough so Itachi can feel it, but not the unknown assailant. Itachi nods slightly acknowledging her presence. She makes a few fast hand signs and holds her chakra back, ready to activate the jutsu. The unknown chakra bearer arrives in the clearing just as she positions herself to watch unseen. She looks at the mysterious chakra owner.

Sakura freezes.

Itachi smirks slightly.

And Sasuke's mouth gapes at the man he thought he had killed.

**A/N: CLIF HANGER! MUHA HA HA HA! I had fun adding 'Hn' and 'Aa' to my dictionary in word for this chapter. Made me laugh. I tried in this chapter to show just how strong Sakura has gotten since joining the Akatsuki. On the flip side I tried to show how much power Madra has over her. (To be explained later) I hope she isn't too OOC. Of course more of her new techniques are yet to come. Oh man! I almost forgot, in this fic Itachi isn't dead (bet ya'll thought he was Sasuke. Ha ha got you!). Yes the battle between Sasuke and Itachi did happen. You'll see later why he's still alive after Sasuke 'killed' him.**

"**Doton ****Idaina keisei no jutsu" literally means 'earth style rock formation technique' in English. **

**~Your Bismuth Killjoy, Lexi!~**


	3. Chapter 3 Sasuke

**A/N: Hey ya'll! Thanks for sticking with it! Here's Chapter 3.**

Chapter 3- Sasuke

_Oh my god, that chakra belongs to __**Sasuke**__?_ Sakura shouts in her mind as she lays in wait in the cover of the forest, staring at the two shinobi in the clearing.

Itachi had gone back to his blank expression and Sasuke had recuperated his face into a deathly glare.

"You're supposed to be _dead_!" Sasuke grits out, taking a defensive pose.

"Foolish little brother." Itachi says in a monotone, "I was never dead. I only wanted you to think that I was." Sasuke's eyes widen, then narrow, his eternal sharingan flashing.

"Then whose eyes do I have?" Sasuke says indignantly, "Madra transferred a new pair into me and as a result I got the eternal sharingan. If you're still alive-"

Itachi cuts him off "You have my eyes. Madra did not lie."

"But then-"

"And I have yours." Itachi says smirking at Sasuke's angry expression. Sasuke draws his Katana a scowl on his face.

"So all this time," he says glaring furiously at his elder brother, "all this time I thought Konoha had ordered you to murder my family and it was all an elaborate plot to get my eyes?"

"Yes and no." The Akatsuki member says blankly, "Yes I had planned this to take your eyes, but only after you had the Mangekyo Sharingan. No, I _was_ ordered to kill the Uchiha clan, but i did it willingly, with the exception of you so that one day I could possess the Eternal Sharingan."

Sasuke furrows his brows slightly, thinking. Itachi watches silently, letting his younger sibling take it all in.

"So," he speaks after a while, "The only reason I was left to live was for my eyes?" he says a blank expression on his face.

"Aa"

"You never actually cared for me." It was a statement.

"Maybe I did at one time, but that time has long since been forgotten. You are merely a tool now. "

Sasuke's eyes grow harder at his words. Itachi makes a barely noticeable nod. _That's my que. _Sakura thinks sprinting from the bushes.

"CHIDORI!"

The sound of chirping birds fills the clearing as Sakura jumps in front of Itachi, hand blazing with the lightning technique, just as Sasuke attacks using the same jutsu with his Katana.

"_Sakura?"_

The two former team mate's chidori clash, intensifying the sounds of chirping. Sasuke stares wide eyed into the pink haired kunoichi's emerald green orbs. She smirks darkly as she delivers a chakra enhanced punch to his gut. Sasuke blocks just in time, but is sent flying backward several feet. Sakura deactivates the jutsu standing in front of Itachi, who looks bored.

Sasuke just stares at her, eyes wide. He looks her up and down. _Probably looking at my new apparel…_

"What are you-"he starts

"Doing?" she cuts him off smiling evilly, "I should think that should be obvious, Sa-su-ke-kun" she mocks. His face hardens.

"Why are you with _him?"_ he spits out glaring at Itachi briefly before flicking his red eyes back to her.

Sakura glances over her shoulder at Itachi.

"I think that too should be fairly obvious Sasuke" she says rolling her eyes dramatically. Itachi's eyes intensify as he looks at Sakura's back. Feeling those powerful eyes on her back Sakura turns around locking eyes with her Master. Sakura rightly interprets his glare for curiosity. _I know sensei. trust me. _She thinks, her eyes flashing briefly. Itachi seems to get the message because her returns his gaze to the missing-nin across the field. Sakura follows suit.

Sasuke, abandoning his astonishment for anger, is full out death glaring at his brother. Sakura chuckles lowly.

"Why?" she asks in a teasing tone, "Does that make you jealous, Sa-su-ke-kun?"

"Hn" Sasuke snorts, sheathing his katana, going into a more relaxed pose.

_He thinks I'm not a threat! _She realizes, infuriated.

Her light smile melts into a snarl her body taking a fighting pose. She starts making seals-

"Sakura" She freezes at the sound of the elder Uchihas voice.

"Hn." Itachi states dully, from behind Sakura. In that syllable she hears the command 'no' and 'don't ruin your plan' and the almost constant reprimand of 'you're letting your emotions get in the way'. Gritting her teeth she stands up from her pose releasing the bore hand sign she was making. Sasuke raises an eyebrow from across the field at her strange behavior.

"So what now Sasuke?" Sakura says face blank looking at Sasuke. Sasuke stares back just as expressionless.

"Do we kill you?" at this Sasuke snorts, Sakura continues, "Do we take you hostage? Or do you come of your own free will?"

"Sakura, I doubt you could take _Konohamaru_ hostage, let alone me." Sasuke says breezily. Sakura glares at this. Then pauses, thinking.

"You know what?" Sakura says straightening from her defensive pose, "Never mind Sasuke, you're not worth our time. "With that she turns around and starts walking the other direction. Itachi follows, curiosity practically begging to be answered from him- or at least as much as an Uchiha begs for anything. Sakura grins at this. _Let it sink in, wait for it, and NOW!_

"Oh and Sasuke?" she throws across the field at him. He merely continues to watch Itachi's back, "I hope you get over the disappointment of having your brother take everything from you." She starts walking away again, Itachi in tow as before. _In three, two, one-_

"What do you mean by _that_, Sakura?"

She smiles darkly pausing in her steps. Slowly, she turns around, hiding the devious smile she recently had on.

"Oh, you know…" she says vaguely, sauntering toward the younger Uchiha slowly, their eyes locked. "your father's attention…your mother's love…your clan… your peace of mind… your revenge…. your _eyes…._" Sasuke's eyes grow harder and his glare intensifies as he watches the Pink haired Akatsuki member walk closer.

"Your spot in the Akatsuki…" Sakura continues, growing ever closer to the Uchiha, "Your love…. Your ability to trust….your pride…the eight tails- you know he recently caught and sealed it, something you couldn't do..."

_Technically, that was him __**and**__ me._ She thinks as a side thought. _But hey, details aren't important. _

She's now right in front of the Avenger, noses almost touching. Sasuke tenses, his eyes sparking with caution.

"And of course…Me…" She says her face blank, her tone somehow seductive. Sasuke narrows his eyes into a half glare, but stays silent. Sakura pauses briefly, then suddenly breaks the stare and whips around strutting back to Itachi.

"It seems to me, the only thing he has yet to take is Naruto." She pauses in her step halfway through the field, turning to glance back at the younger Uchiha, "but he and I were just on our way to capture him, so I suppose that doesn't really count anymore." She shrugs and continues toward the elder of the two.

Sasuke continues his glare, not moving from his spot, but Sakura feels the deadly spike in his Chakra and she knows he's pissed at his brother.

_And with that Sasuke Uchiha, I call check mate. _She brushes past Itachi, who turns to follow her,

and starts walking into the forest. Again she can feel Itachi's curiosity, but decided to explain when Sasuke is out of hearing range.

"Good bye, Sasuke –kun" she dead-pans waving lazily without turning around.

* * *

"Hn?"

Several miles later Itachi asks the question, _if you can call it that_, over to his student. Confident that Sasuke isn't following them, the pink haired Akatsuki explains.

"I give him two days to find us and demand to be my partner." She says simply, not looking at the Uchiha. Itachi cocks an eyebrow.

"Oh?" he says in a semi- entertained way, "and why do you say that?"

Sakura smirks. "He can't _stand_ being bested by you. Based on this fact I made it so that the only way he can beat you, so to say, is by capturing Naruto. I told him we're already headed out to capture Naruto, and that we've already captured the 8-tails. These two facts imply that we will have no problem getting the 9-tails. He then has two options. One of which is to fight us for the nine-tails. He's smart enough to know that this is a horrible choice- two against one isn't going to end well for him, even if he thinks I'm still a weakling." At this she grinds her teeth. "So the only way for him to capture Naruto, and therefore beat you-"

"-is to split us up and use one of us to help him capture Naruto." Itachi finishes in a dead voice.

"Right." She replies, "And of course he would **never** partner up with you, so that leaves me." She smirks at her own genius, "so I kill two birds with one stone. I get a new partner _and_ I capture the Kyubi."

"Hn." Sakura takes this to mean 'good work'. She smiles, _you done good Sakura, you done good._.

_Well at least I can count on one thing; things are going to be interesting._

_

* * *

_

Sasuke was pissed. Again. What was it about that girl that was so… _annoying_… He was currently sitting by his fire at his base camp trying to enjoy a meal of fish and ramen, but her words kept coming back into his head.

"_I hope you get over the disappointment of having your brother take everything from you." _Her voice flits through his head, broad casting what she had said to him like a loud speaker.

"_your father's attention…your mother's love…your clan… your peace of mind… your revenge…. your _eyes_….__**Me**__" _And to mention Naruto… It was an obvious challenge. The question is, will he take it?

It was so infuriating! _How could she get so under my skin with just a few mere words? It's not like her to be so…seductive-_ _wait, what? Where did that come from? I can't believe I just thought that! I need to calm down right now, this kind of stress is not good for me, I'm fucking hallucinating in my thoughts!_

Sasuke runs a hand through his spikey hair, exhaling loudly. He just needs to stop thinking about it. But he always ends up thinking about it… about _her_. Her cold (_when did she become so icy?) _green eyes flash though his brain and he feels the sting of her sharp words as they run through his head.

"UHG!" he says out loud in frustration, punching and effectively shattering a tree in the process. He breaths heavily, Eyes blazing with fury. _There has to be some way to solve this! I CAN"T let Itachi win! _

Then it hits him. It's so simple, yet positively… effective. Yes, that's what he's do.

_Sakura, you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into… _he thinks tomos spinning.

**A/N: not really sure when I'll update... Chapter four hasn't even been planed out in my head yet so... ya. well I expect a month at MOST. more likely in less than a week. REVIEW PLEASE! 3**


	4. Chapter 4 Breakdown

**A/N: ok yes I totally suck for promising "one month at the latest" and not updating for two and a half… all I can say is sorry and that school was totally insane. Anyway, the point is it's up now! So enjoy!**

Chapter 4 – Breakdown

Sakura was in the middle of sharpening her favorite kunai when Sasuke arrived at the Akatsuki base. If the screams of the villagers from the town next to the base and sounds of battle weren't enough proof, he had done nothing to mask his chakra so he was emitting chakra like a flaming beacon. Sakura paused her movements for a few seconds, listening, before continuing to make the weapon perfectly edged. It had been given to her by Naruto on her 17th birthday and despite the fact that all she had done with it were probably not what he had intended her to use it for, it still held a special place in her heart. He smiled faintly at the thought of Naruto. He became the Hokage just before…_the incident_, before Sakura left. The smile left her face and she froze, feeling the flitters of pain emerge from the place she had buried her emotions in her heart jump to the suferface. She quickly pushed them back down and sat back in her chair.

_Emotions are worthless, stop thinking about it. You've stayed strong this long, don't break it for that blonde morron._ She mentally chided herself examining the swirl symbol on the blade. She propped her feet up on the grinding stone and waited for Sasuke to arrive by throwing the kunai into the wall in front of her. It had obviously been abused in the same way numerous times before as there were several dents and gashes in the grey rock.

* * *

It was only a few minutes before Sasuke managed to get past all of the traps set around the base. He was currently standing on top of the spot where he could feel Sakura's chakra burning at a constant rate below the ground. A smirk appeared on his mouth as he sheathed his katana. _I don't sense Itachi anywhere. This is just too easy._

There was a puff of smoke behind Sakura, announcing the teleportation jutsu. She could sense that Sasuke was waiting for her to react to his appearance in the room. She ignored him and continued to imbed the knife into the marked up wall. After a decidedly uncomfortable silence, Sasuke finally spoke.

"Sakura" he said hotly, obviously annoyed he had to speak to get her attention. Sakura turned around to look at him, kunai resting in her hand lightly.

"Oh, Sasuke!" sakura exclaimed with a fake expression of surprise, "I totally didn't see you there!" She snorts out the last bit,grinning hugely. Sasuke just glares at her, adn she gladdly returns the favor. Sakura stands up and crosses her arms, raising her eyebrow expectantly, twirlling her kunai on her index finger. Sasuke watches it twirl for a few seconds, before flicking his eyes to hers.

"…"

"Just spit it out Sasuke." Sakura says in impatience, trying not to get to lost in his endless orbs "I don't have all day."

"Oh ya, cuse you were SO busy before I arrived." Sasuke says sarcastically rolling his eyes, finaly breaking the concetion between them. "Admit it, you were waiting for me."

_THE BASTERD! _Sakura thought aghast, a blank look on her face externaly. _The prick! Thinks he can just come in here and insult my integrity. You know what? I didn't sign up for this bull shit, HE was the one who needed my help. and this is NOT the way to ask for it._

"Goodbye Sasuke." Sakura said blankly turning and walking out the door. Sasuke freezes in shock, or at least as close as he can get to shock. Sakura is halfway out of the base before Sasuke finally snaps out of his stance and quickly follows her. He caught up with the fuming Akatsuki just outside of the base, roughly grabbing her wrist. Sakura is whipped around to face Sasuke, a snarle present on her face. Sasuke just looks at her with a blank expression on his face.

"What Sasuke?" she hisses at him stepping closer, "What do you want? Cuse I don't have time to screw around with your angsty-egotistical-prick like behavior!" At her words Sasuke narrows his eyes, attempting to keep the sharingan turned off. His grip tightens on her thin wrist. She can tell that it's going to bruse.

"You have no right-" he grits out stepping closer so that he is towering over Sakura. _He's trying to intimidate me... don't let it get to you Sakura, you are strong. Be strong._

"I have no right?" Sakura asks incredulously, glaring up into Sasuke's onyx eyes. "Sasuke, if I remember correctly YOU were the one who sought me, not the other way around!" At this Sasuke frowns, looking away from her flashing eyes. Sakura yanks her wrist out of his grasp. _This is going nowhere. _She thinks watching Sasuke attempt to figure out how to get what he wants without admitting his fault. _Sakura, get over yourself; you need him just as much as he needs you. _She sighs, running a hand through her pink tresses.

"Well shit." She finally says. Sasuke looks at her again, a slight hint of confusion in his eyes. She turns away and sits on a nearby rock. Sasuke looks on with hidden curiosity.

After a few moments of silence Sakura looks up to see Sasuke staring at her. "We both know why you're here, and since you to much of a-" Sasuke glares at her, "Right. Uh, since you're not uh _willing_ to request my help, I-"

"-who said I needed your help?" Sasuke cuts her off.

"Do you want to get Naruto or not?"

"…hn" He answers finally watching Sakura intently. _I'll take that as a yes. _Sasuke looks at her deeply, _God his gaze is so intense.._ Sakura pushes her thoughts away as she stands up from the boulder grinning darkly.

"Well then Sasuke, welcome back to the Akatsuki." Sakura walks toward Sasuke, who has his eyebrows raised.

"…hn" he says cautiously as she gets closer than he would have liked.

Sakura pauses, her eyebrow twitching slightly. "Ok, rule one, you are only allowed to use 'hn' every other sentence."

"h- uh, ya" Sasuke says quietly looking down at Sakura, who is just inches from touching him. She grins seeing his discomfort. _Oh is he a little shy still? He he. _Sasuke grunts and turns away from her stalking away toward the East.

"We will meet back up in two days' time, in the hidden rain. Bring anything you or I will need for the next two months." He states coldly looking over his shoulder at Sakura. _Why is his sharringan activated? _Sakura thinks as she crosses her arms and raises a delicate eyebrow.

"And what, oh great partner, are we going to be doing for two months?" Sakura says sarcastically. A smirk appears on Sasuke's face.

"hn." Then he was gone. Sakura sighed deeply. _Great. We haven't even been working together for more than two hours and he's already bossing me around like some kind of pet dog. Time to go pack. I probably should go see Madra too…_

* * *

Sasuke was watching Sakura from a nearby tree secretly. _I don't trust her, she's hiding something. This isn't the Sakura I knew. _

He watched, chakra masked, as Sakura took one last cold glance around the clearing before walking away silently, her black and red cloak billowing behind her gracefully.

_She was never this…quiet… or graceful for that matter. What happened?_Sasuke couldn't help but question, narrowing his blood red eyes. he had tryed to not use them, but as he grew more frustrated and currious as to what had made her change, he just couldn't resist it anymore.

As quickly and quietly as he possible could, he followed her from above, carefully watching her chakra levels to see if she became aware of his presence. He had a tight hold on his chakra, meticulously checking to make sure it was fully masked, but he wasn't sure if it was enough. From what he'd heard over the past few years she was an expert chakra sensor, manipulator and identifier. And he for one, did not want to be caught spying on his new 'partner'.

_Partner... more like tool. She won't last more than one week with me. She's too soft. To weak. _Then he remembered that Itachi had chosen her as a partner. This thought made him furrow his eyebrow in slight confusion.

_Why would Itachi become her partner? It's not like him to be around someone he could not rely on to save his ass if he ever needed it. That must mean either Sakura actually is strong, or Itachi has gone off his rocker… or they weren't partners to start out with…_ Sasuke thought to himself, never losing sight of the pinkette below.

_But Itachi wouldn't go along with that…. would he? No. of course not. Itachi would never help out someone like her. And when Itachi is crazy really isn't that much different form his normal self. In fact, I suspect he's been off his rocker since before the massacre. Which leaves that Sakura really is strong enough to be partners with my brother. _Sasuke checked her chakra levels suspiciously as she bends down to scoop up some sand and pebbles. He watched curiously as she lets the sand run through her hand keeping the pebbles. _It doesn't seem like she has that much chakra, it feels like a low level jonin… but she was ANBU before she left Hidden Leaf… She could be masking it. I will have to test her strength…_

Sakura choose that exact moment to flick a pebble at a random tree, which exploded when the small rock hit it. Sakura had on a sadistic smile, scooping up another pebble.

Sasuke's eyes went wide. Her chakra had flared momentarily to a monstrous size. Almost as large as his. _I will have to test Sakura's strength soon. _He thought a bit shocked. He quickly recovered though, and continued to follow the Akatsuki member silently. She weaved in and out of the trees like she was floating rather than walking. He couldn't help wondering where she was going. Her cloak remained firmly closed, making her look boxy, her Akatsuki hat attached to her hip by a thin silk red ribbon. Her hair was just past her shoulders and heavily layered.

_I have to admit that she is much prettier than she was when she was younger…._ _Wait, what did I just think? Sasuke you're being ridiculous. Stupid hormones. _While Sasuke was cursing his humanity suddenly Sakura's chakra disappeared. Sasuke looked around all over for her, only to find empty space.

_What the fuck? Where the hell did she go?_

Sasuke continued to search for her for at least thirty minutes before finally deciding that it was too dark and heading off to the camp he had set up the day before, still really confused about the whole ordeal.

* * *

Sakura was walking in a random direction out of shear boredom. Madra was never in his office before the sun went down, so it was rather pointless to go back to the main base and she really didn't feel like going back to her and Itachi's, err, rather Sasuke's and her base. SO she was currently wasting time. She reached down to scoop up some sand and rocks, letting the sand trickle through her hand. She watched it fall to the ground, reminded of how little time she really had. How little time anybody had. Her fists clenched at the thought of Time, the best friend to Death. In her anger she threw the pebble at a tree which splinter and sent pieces of wood fling in all directions. The site makes her grin. The thought that she could shatter boulders with a flick, made her feel more in control.

_What was that? _Sakura thinks as she suddenly feels a flare of chakra coming from above her. She freezes momentarily before resuming her walk. _Whoever they are they obviously don't want me to know they are there, and they haven't attacked yet, meaning they're only here to spy._ Sakura decided that it was probably better if she waited to see if she knew who was following her before disappearing.

She continued to walk acting like nothing was wrong, all the while intently assessing the glimpses of Chakra she would feel from behind her. There was a particularly large flair a few seconds later.

_Oh my god! It's Sasuke! _She thought as she identified her tail. _Why the fuck is he following me? This is no time to be asking questions, whatever he's doing, it's obviously out of mistrust and I don't want to give him evidence. Time to disappear. _

Sakura quickly did some hand signs, careful not to make them visible to the position Sasuke was in, before whispering "Sairentosakura No Hana No Yusō jutsu" (Silent Sakura Petal Transportation Technique). She immediately disappeared in a flurry of Sakura petals, which disintegrated when they touched the ground. In less than a second she was in front of the Akasuki's main base. She sucks in a deep breath as she wobbles on her feet. _God that used a lot of chakra. Well I guess it makes sense, I just transported across three countries in a single go. _After a few seconds, her head had stopped spinning and she was walking into the base, the sun setting behind her.

**A/N: Well here's the fourth chapter! I wasn't too happy with this one unfortunately, it was weird writing Sasuke, I wasn't sure how he would have responded. I did the best I could though, so tell me what you think and how I can improve if you want! Due to the fact that it is now summer break, I shouldn't have to much trouble cranking this story out quickly, but no promises!:) **

**-Your Bismuth Killjoy, Lexie-**


	5. Chapter 5 Goals, Secrets and Feelings

Chapter 5- Goals, Secrets and Feelings

When Sakura entered the base, she knew Itachi was there. Not just because this is where they had agreed to meet up once Sasuke had agreed to join Sakura, and therefore the Akatsuki; but also because she could feel his chakra burning in his room. It was a… comfort… she had missed over the past two days. Admittedly, it pissed her off that Sasuke had been right. She had been waiting for him when he had arrived at the small base, but she wasn't about to let that get in the way of the good mood she was in.

_Madra sempi will be proud. _She thinks as she walks down the familiar yet depressingly dark and damp hallway. She is just entering into the round room when she feels a tug in her thoughts. Knowing that Itachi was attempting to communicate wither she quickly formed the complicated series of hand signs whispering "Shisō no setsuzoku jutsu" (thought connection technique). Immediately she could hear a pleasant hmmm in her thoughts.

_**Itachi? **_ Sakura thought loudly. This jutsu was one of her favorites. Itachi had taught it to her one day, stating that 'when team members communicated silently it gave them a better chance of surviving.', whatever that meant. Anyway, Sakura particularly liked this jutsu because it allowed her to talk to Itachi without being near him. As far as she knew there were no geographical limitations to it, which made it even better.

_**Sakura, I'm assuming you have successfully gotten Sasuke's agreement to join. **_She heard Itachi's cool voice ring through her head. It felt good to hear his voice again, they hadn't used this jutsu in forever and she missed being able to talk to him at a moment's notice.

_**Hai. Sasuke is officially my new partner. **_She thought back, sending her smug feeling with it. the jutsu was interesting in that not only could the users send thoughts but also images, feelings and sounds. To Sakura the connection felt like a wire connecting their minds. Of course he couldn't read all of her thoughts, just the ones she 'sent' to him. The feeling part of the connection was a bit more difficult, as their feelings were always being sent across to the other. They had no control over what feelings the other would receive. But Sakura thought this was just as well, considering that Itachi hardly ever showed any emotions, it was nice to know he still had them.

She felt Itachi's brief amusement at her, which disappeared quickly to be replaced by slight concern and superiority.

_**Sakura, you must be careful. Sasuke is more deadly than you know. Do not underestimate his power. **_ She was surprised to feel the twinge of guilt that came with the thought. However soon enough the only thing she could feel was a cold indifference. From him.

_**I can handle Sasuke. **_She thought, a bit annoyed that Itachi didn't think she could handle herself. Sasuke wasn't so hard to handle (really all you had to do was invade his personal bubble and he backed off immediately.), besides, Sasuke was the one underestimating _her_.

_**Sakura, Sasuke has nothing to lose and everything to gain- **_ Itachi thought before Sakura cut him off.

_**So do i. **_ She thought firmly. She could feel Itachi's annoyance, anger and slight feeling of worry.

_**You think you don't but believe me, you do. **_ He thought firmly, clearing meaning to end the argument. Before Sakura could reply he thought, _** I will be watching and listening. **_Sakura took that to mean that he would want to keep the jutsu open for the majority of the trip.

Sakura mentally sighed, slightly pissed off. _** Fine. I must go talk to Madra now. **_

_**Hn. **_ And with that she lost the feeling of Itachi's connection. As usual it took her a few seconds to get use to the empty feeling in her mind after he had left. She ignored it however, convincing herself it was stupid to miss him. By this time she had reached Madra's door. She opened it roughly, still fuming about Itachi. She stepped into the office silently.

Madra was sitting at his desk and glanced up when Sakura stepped.

"Hello Sakura, how was your trip?" he asked in a strangely cheery voice. _Weird_ Sakura thought, still upset _there must be something going on_._ What aren't they telling me? _ She narrowed her eyes momentarily, before relaxing and putting a blank expression on her face.

She shrugged and replied, "It was ok, I used a teleportation jutsu to get here though, so im kinda low on chakra." Her indifferent tone made Madra raise an eyebrow. Not that Sakura could see it, but his sharingan eye got slightly wider. After spending five years almost constantly in his presence, Sakura had learned how to read him pretty well. Plus all the time she spent reading Kakashi- Sakura visibly flinched at the thought of his name. Anger continued to course her veins. She somehow managed to keep her face blank, covering up her venomous thoughts.

"Sasuke decided he wanted to follow me here" Sakura answered Madra silent question, "or I guess I should say try. He tried to follow me" she amended after a second of thought. Her voice was tight. She was so much better than Sasuke, why couldn't they see that? Why was everything always about Sasuke? Or Naruto? Didn't anybody care about her? SHE was the strongest now. But it didn't seem to make a difference. She turned away from Madra's eyes and glared at the filing cabinet on the floor.

"I see." Madra said indifferently. Then he stood up and walked across the room to a row of shelves on the other side of the room and started to rummage around. Sakura attempted to burn a hole in the cabinet with her eyes.

"First thing first, did Sasuke decide to join up again?" he asked not looking at the pink haired Akatsuki member.

"Hai." She said shortly, again always Sasuke. She let out a small huff of air.

"Good." He said then he seemed to find what he was looking for because he turned and walked back to his desk. "Next, take this. It's a chakra pill." He said handing her a small round pill. She took it examining it.

"You mean like a soldier pill?" she asked wearily.

"No. It artificially stimulated the body's chakra producers to give you more chakra. A chakra pill" he explained. Sakura looked at it skeptically. It didn't seem like it was a good idea. Things don't come without a price, chakra can't be made out of thin air. There had to be some catch.

"What's the catch?" she asked narrowing her eyes and looking at him.

"Sakura eat it now." Madra snapped at her. Sakura quickly popped the pill into her mouth and swallowed. She immediately felt dizzy and nauseous. She just gritted her teeth however and waited for Madra to speak again.

"Good. You know I would never do anything that would hurt you." He said absentmindedly.

"of course" Sakura managed to get out, she was still pissed off. Why couldn't they just trust her?

"Remember what they did to you Sakura. The tortured you, killed the ones you loved and kept you locked up." Madra says in firm voice. Sakura froze then clenched her fist. "And who rescued you?" he asked

"You did Sempi." She says angrily. She knew it was true. All of her anger seemed to shift over to the thought of what the stupid village had done to her. Madra had rescued her from the horrors of the leaf village, showed her the truth and made her realize what was the right way. Of course he would never do anything to harm her! He had Saved her! How could she doubt I him. It was all those bastards in Konoha's fault. She hated that place and everyone inside of it for do what they did to her. She needed to kill them all.

"Good, don't forget it." Madra said, "Now lastly, I want to warn you about Sasuke." Sakura stopped ranting in her head and turned to look at her master. _Him too? God does nobody believe in me?_ Then she chided herself for not believing in Madra. Of course he knew what he was talking about. She was disgusted with herself for even considering her had been trying to put her down.

"Sasuke is a loose cannon. He cannot be trusted. Ever." The Akatsuki leader said solemnly. "DO you understand Sakura?"

"Yes sempi, I won't trust Sasuke. As far as I'm concerned he nothing by a means to an end." Sakura said forcefully. A means to kill all of the people who ruined my life.

"You are dismissed" Madra said unceremoniously. Sakura nodded and left feeling angry, confused and dizzy. As she exited the base she couldn't help wondering what was happening. Everyone seemed to know something about her new partner, except for her. It disturbed her. _She _ was the one who had to be by his side for the next two months not them. Shouldn't she know what was going on. She had a feeling there was something bad coming, but she didn't know what. She was just exiting the underground base feeling motivated to accomplish her goals, when she noticed that all of her chakra had returned. She wasn't too surprised. After all Madra had said it would return all of her chakra back in no time. She smiled, this was good. She quickly made the hand signs and disappeared in a cloud of Sakura tree petals. She arrived in the clearing she had just left, in hidden rain country. It took a moment to realize that she wasn't alone in the clearing. Her eyes widened as she took a defensive pose, lightning fast, a snarl finding its way out of her mouth. It was about that time that the world went black and she collapsed. Her only thought,

_I knew there was a catch. _

**A/N: well ya, I know I said I was gonna crank this out, but I just didn't feel like writing. Plus the lack of reviews has kinda got me unmotivated. Hint hint. Anyway. This is it. what do you guys think of the thought transfer jutsu? Who was in the clearing? Why are Itachi and Madra keeping things form Sakura? More importantly, why did Madra give Sakura a pill that ended up making her pass out? These question and more will probably not be answered in the next chapter! Ha ha. Well I guess ill start on chapter six now. **

**-Your bismuth killjoy, Lexie!-**


	6. Chapter 6 Waking Up

Chapter 6- Waking Up

_**Sakura.**_

Sakura awoke to the smell of fresh cooked fish and pine.

_**Sakura, wake up.**_

"Ugh." Sakura groaned slowly opening her eyes and holding her head. _W-where am i?_ Sakura thought looking around the small clearing she was in. she was on top of her sleeping roll, a blanket lightly resting on her. To her left a small fire pit was smoldering with red hot coals. A fish was cooking in it. Other than that the clearing was empty.

_What? What's happening? How did I get here? _Suddenly it all came back to Sakura, the pills, the teleportation and the person in the clearing. She sat bolt upright, the blanket falling off of her. A gasp escaped her lips at the sudden pain in her head. I felt like her brain was being splattered against her skull. She quickly ignored it however, remembering the threat at hand. She reached down to grab a kunai from her leg pouch to find that it had been removed. She looked around the clearing, wincing at the sharp pain It caused, and located all of her equipment hanging from a tree, including her Akatsuki cloak and hat. she looked down to find herself dressed in her usual mesh leggings with black short and black long sleeved shirt.

_Ok, that's kinda creepy, I NEVER take my cloak off in while im on a mission. I mean-_

_**-Sakura. **_ She was cut off by Itachi's voice. Her eyes widened slightly.

_**Itachi? What are you doing? **_ She asked surprised and confused. She hadn't done the jutsu, how could he be in her mind? This didn't make any sense.

Sakura could've sworn he snorted, but she couldn't be sure. _**Hn. I'm talking to you obviously. **_ He thought back annoyed.

_**I know that! But I didn't make hand signs or anything! **_

_**I can use the jutsu without your permission; I just haven't ever needed to. **_ Sakura was shocked. Why hadn't she told her this? He could just get into her head whenever he wanted. Talk about and invasion of privacy.

_**Can I do that too? I didn't think-**_ she was cut off.

_**-no. only I know how to use the technique.**_ Itachi replied.

_That's… not good. _Sakura thought to herself, but she replied with _**ok, fine by me.**_

_**Hn. Now you must get up and prepare yourself before he comes back. **_ Itachi ordered. Sakura slowly got out from under her blanket standing quickly. Her head twinged and her vision went out for a few moments. Sakura ignored it and walked to where her things were handing, gritting her teeth at the dizziness. a thought occurred to her as she was putting on her cloak,

_**Wait. Who is-**_

"Hn." The all too familiar voice sounded from behind her. Sakura's mouth opened in a small oh before she quickly recovered and turned around pulling her cloak all the way on.

"Sasuke." She dead panned staring at him blankly. He was standing across the small clearing one hand resting on his katana.

Though she refused to show it on the outside, inside Sakura was panicking. If Sasuke was here that meant he had been the person in the clearing, which in turn meant that he had been the one to take care of her, making her a bed and de-cloaking her (she didn't even want to think about that) and letting her rest. All over it was not a good thing. Now she wasn't just annoying and weak, she annoying weak _and _a burden. Great, this is _exactly_ how she wanted to start their comradeship, her depending on him to make sure she didn't get eaten by a rabid bear.

Sasuke, sensing nothing of the Akatsuki's inner deterioration merely shrugged,

"Get your things" he said in a bored tone. Sakura froze, her fingers half-finished buttoning up her black and red cloak.

"My…things…" _SHIT! _Sakura mentally hit herself. She must have forgotten to grab her things before transporting out of the base!

_Stupid, stupid PATHETIC! _Sakura mentally chided herself.

_**Sakura.**_

_How could I be so Stupid? It's not like its hard- _Sakura continued to rant not noticing Itachi's voice.

_**Sakura…**_

_-to remember to pack. GOD! Why am I so pathetic? I can't- _this time Sakura was just flat out ignoring Itachi. Unfortunately, he knew it.

_**Sakura! **_ He yelled at her impatiently. Sakura stopped to listen_, __**Sakura, I hid your supplies a mile from here in a hollowed out log. **_ He sent her a mental picture accompanied with a map. Sakura mentally sighed.

_**Oh thank god. The last thing I need is more screw up in front of Sasuke. **_She thought relieved. She felt Itachi's mild amusement.

_**You can talk to me later, when Sasuke isn't around. I must go now. **_And with that Itachi was gone from her mind.

_Damn you and your flash jutsu ._Sakura thought finally looking at Sasuke. She was shocked to see a curious and slightly amused expression on his face. It didn't last long and was quickly replaced by his ever present black mask. Sakura's expression mirrored his.

"My pack is about a mile northwest of here." Sakura spoke coolly, finally finishing buttoning up the trademark cloak. She saw Sasuke's slight nod as she led the way through the forest.

"Good, were going that way anyway." He spoke quietly.

Sasuke, while he would never admit it, was curious about his new partner. Earlier that day he had been walking toward their meeting place, planning to camp out for the remaining two days while he waited for Sakura. He arrived just as the Akatsuki had appeared silently in a flurry of Sakura petals. (He made a mental note of the method, assuming that was how she had disappeared earlier that day.) He watched as her eyes widened briefly before she crumpled to the ground. He presumed she was unconscious.

He stood awkwardly for a few moments trying to decide what to do. Eventually he had convinced himself it was his duty as her partner to take care of her and he had irritably carried her to different clearing (he couldn't be sure she wasn't being followed) before setting up camp. He had taken off her cloak (he dint really feel like describing the way he admired just how _much_ she had changed…) and let her rest, assuming it was just chakra depletion that had caused her blackout.

However when he had cast a jutsu to check hidden chakra signals, he was astounded by the sheer amount she had, defiantly close to his size. What was curious was that it seemed like she had full chakra. This was suspicious to him for two reasons; the first being that most peoples chakra was never all the way full, as just living required chakra use; the second being that she had just teleported from who knows where, and teleportation jutsus generally use massive quantities of chakra. Of course Sasuke had to take into account that he had no idea what teleportation jutsu she had used, and therefore had no idea what it's effects were.

Things had gotten even weirder when he walked into the clearing later with some bread he bout at a nearby town to find Sakura moving around gathering her things. She was obviously disoriented, seeing as she hadn't felt his chakra approach and by the way she was wobbling all over he could guess she was dizzy too.

After he got her attention she had turned her face blank, but her eyes like an open book. He watched as terror, guilt and embarrassment flitted across her green eyes. He watched amused as she thought about something, obviously distressed. He apathetically told her to grab her things and was surprised to see her freeze, then appear to have a conversation with someone in her head. If Sasuke wasn't so disciplined in his behavior, he might have laughed. Her expression s changed rapidly from anger, to panic back to anger, submissiveness, gratefulness, relief then back to anger among other expressions he couldn't quite name. it would be very comical, if it wasn't so disturbing. She obviously not mentally stable which just made Sasuke apprehensive. The last thing he needed was a partner who wasn't part of reality. That coupled with his growing suspicion of her was not making him very excited about this 'partnership' they had.

She quickly recovered, however, and she was back to the impassive Sakura he was beginning to recognize as the 'new' Sakura. She proceeded to stop out of the clearing in the direction her things where hidden (…?...).

Now they were somewhere in the middle of the forest, Sakura bending down to search the inside of a log and Sasuke looking on cautiously. She rummaged for a while before standing holding a backpack, a small pack of what looked like soldier pills and a monstrous amount of weapons.

Sakura went still when she saw the pills, and then seemed to relax, nodding to herself. Sasuke watched wearily as a scroll slipped down from her left sleeve. She quickly made some hand signs (Sasuke was slightly angry he didn't have his sharingan activated so he could follow the movements.) and then the items were gone, sealed within the scroll.

"OK. lets go." Sakura said quietly. Sasuke glanced into her eyes and saw confusion. She glanced up seeming to feel his gaze.

_She has really nice eyes…wait what?_ Sasuke quickly broke the eye contact and turn away from the pinkette.

"Hn." He said "Come on, I want to get to the village by sundown." Sasuke walked through the forest not checking to see if she was following simply because he knew she would be.

"Village?" Her question was expected, but no less difficult to deal with. In Sasuke's opinion, if she would just do what he told her to and things would work out excellently. But of course she just _had _ to question his authority.

"Yes, village. You know like a small community with a population between one th-" he began.

"I know what a village is Sasuke." Sakura cut him off, clearly irritated. Sasuke almost chuckled. Almost.

"hn." He said simply. Sakura waited for him to explain further. Finally her patients wore out. She appeared in front of Sasuke, a snarl on her face.

"Uchiha, I am not some minion of yours." She growled, "And I will not continue to work with you like this. You _will_ tell me what's going on and you _will_ not just assume I will agree with whatever you say just because you have power. Cuse I have news flash Uchiha, _i _am just as powerful, if not more, than you." As she said this she edged closer and closer, trying to intimidate Sasuke. He refused to back down, even if he did feel slightly intimidated by her closeness. He stood his ground and glowered at her, his eternal sharingan flashing.

"oh yeah? Cuse last time I checked you relied on Naruto and me to do everything for you. I highly doubt that's changed." He snarled at her, leaning even closer so her could see all the darker green flecks in her furious looking eyes.

"You are going to regret that Uchiha." Was all he managed to hear before she attacked him.

**A/N: you know, I rather like this chapter. OOOOHHH Sasuke is going to test Sakura now! The Next chapter is going to be EPIC! Anyway I hoped you liked it. I rather enjoyed writing the Sasuke monolog. It was also pretty lengthy almost 2k!**

**Yes I know the eternal sharingan never goes away in the real anime, but I really thought that it was important for Sasuke to be able to switch back and forth between his 'depthless pools of onyx' and the sharingan. **

**Review please! **

**The one and only Bismuth Killjoy, **

**Lexie**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Ok now I try not to have long author notes, but this one is going to be a tab on the wordy side. First of all I'd like to thank ALL of my reviewers! I started this story for me, but im writing it for you. Second, I have some words for my repeat reviewers! **

**Joldeist****: These next few chapters should help with some of your confusion. (Especially the next one) Let me start by saying that the rookie nine had nothing to do with Sakura's…uh, problem. Madra (the "guy who killed his own brother for the eternal") twisted her judgment to believe they did. (See? He **_**is**_** evil, it's just not immediately apparent). However, Sakura **_**was **_**deeply… uh affected/ damaged by what happened to her and it **_**was**_** … uh, some people in Leaf that did it…. that's all im gonna say for now. **

**Mdtiger: Yes it would totally rock if Sakura kicked Sasuke's ass, however, I'm trying to keep this realistic. Keep that in mind when you read this Chapter, I tried not to disappoint too much. Sakura Is really strong. (in fact, in this story she surpasses Naruto, who is the Hokage). A lot of the reasons she isn't as strong as she could be in this is because she is messed up mentally because of happened to her. **

**And Last, I would like to take this time to explain why I don't do disclaimers. 1) They are annoying to the read. 2) In case you haven't noticed these stories are posted on FANFICTION. That in itself is a disclaimer, if people came to this site to read stuff written by the original writers then I would do one. But they don't so neither do I. 3) Despite the fact that I'm using the characters and world that were create by someone else, This is my story, I planned it, wrote it and published it. So the whole "I own nothing" thing doesn't fly with me. Because I **_**do**_** own this story. **

**Well there you go. I'm not too good at writing battle scenes so I cut most of theirs out. I hope the little bit I have is ok. That is my rant for today. I promise this will be the longest author note in this story. Which is ok because I know most people just skip them anyway. (I am guilty as charged) So enjoy this chapter! It is long as fuck though! Just fair warning!**

**Your bismuth killjoy ,**

**Lexie**

Chapter 7- Who Your Opponent Is

"Iwa keimusho jutsu!" (Rock Prison Technique) Sakura called as she finished a series of hand signs. Sasuke just barley dodged the giant rock slabs, quickly turning around and summoning thousands of shuriken and sent them upon Sakura. The Pinkette responded quickly by flipping through the projectiles. She landed in a crouch breathing hard. _Shit, were evenly matched. This isn't going to end anytime soon._ She thought as she glanced up at Sasuke to find him staring back. Silence filled the clearing as the two partners held each other's gaze.

The clearing they were in now had once been a part of the surround forest, until the two shinobi had come crashing through, destroying many a tree in the process of trying to destroyed one another. Kunai and shuriken were littered about the area and Sakura's battle ax was lodged in an unfortunate oak tree. Blood splatters decorated the grassy ground. This once magnificent section of wave country's forest was dismissed to a bloodied battle field.

The two Akatsuki glared at each other from across the clearing. _It's time to end this._ Sakura thought. She began forming the hand signs,

"CHIDORI!" The two shinobi yelled at the same time as the sounds of thousands of chirping birds filled the forest. The techniques clashed and the sound intensified for a few milliseconds.

Before Sakura knew what was happening her chidori stopped and Sasuke had her pinned to the forest floor. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise. _..he… he beat me…_ she thought in astonishment. Sasuke grinned down at her sadistically, his eternal sharingan as red as the blood that dripped down from his temple.

"Trying to use my own technique against me, Sakura?" He said amusement in his voice. He gave a quick, if not somewhat insane, laugh. _Did he just…laugh? _Sakura broke out of her paralysis and started squirming. Unfortunately Sasuke had her hands pinned above her head with his own and had his knees on both her hips, effectively making it impossible to escape.

"Technically, it's Kakashi's." She spat at him venomously, fighting even harder to get free from his imprisoning body. She saw fury cross Sasuke's face as he heard what she said and felt a small feeling of accomplishment at the expression.

"He isn't even worth mentioning." Sasuke growled at her, his tomos spinning wildly. "I'm by far the better shinobi." It was Sakura's turn to be angry. She went still as the comment sunk in.

"Fuck you Uchiha!" she Ground out. "He was the best shinobi I ever knew." She whispered turning her head to the side, so she wouldn't have to look at Sasuke. A silence passed between the partners.

"Hn." Sasuke said smirking as he released his eternal sharingan from his eyes. Sakura started to squirm again. She even tried flooding her limbs with chakra to get them free, but Sasuke matched her strength.

"Sakura, it's useless. Stop trying to escape." Sasuke said in a bored voice, a smirk still present on his lips.

_Damn him and his sexy smirk. _Sakura thought, as she finally stopped wriggling about. _what the fuck? He is anything but sexy! _She thought aghast at her own mind then paused to think. _Ok, well maybe not. But despite his sexy-ness, he is still and ass hole and I'm supposed to be mad at him. So there. _ She looked up to see Sasuke looking down at her with a raised eyebrow. When she returned the look, he merely shook his head and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "mentally unstable"

"Come on Sasuke, let me up." Sakura said looking into his depthless black eyes, feigning innocence in her eyes (A.k.a. the puppy dog look), hoping that he would let her get up so she could take him down .

Sasuke grunted and rolled his eyes. "Do you take me for an idiot?" he asked incredulously, "I'm not letting you up until you surrender."

_Well there goes that plan. _Sakura thought sighing. Avoiding looking at Sasuke, she tried to think of a way out without admitting he was better than her. Several minutes passed, the silence broken only by the occasional growl from Sakura.

"Sakura…" Sasuke drawled. Sakura looked up, only to find his face inches from hers. He eyes bored into hers. Sakura couldn't stop herself from glancing at his lips, but quickly looked back to his eyes when she felt a rather uncomfortable flip in her stomach.

Sakura swallowed, "Sasuke." Magically her voice sounded strong and confident, which was indirect contradiction to how she felt at the moment.

"Just admit that I won…" Sasuke breathed, a smirk on his face as he watched her squirm. "… and I'll let go go…" _kami, I don't think I can handle this…. _Sakura thought trying very hard not to inhale for fear she might faint from how _good _he smelled. _Damn him to hell for seven eternities._ Then a thought occurred to her_._ A smile slowly spread across her face. _Two can play this game… _she smiled as She figured out how to win.

"Hm. Sasuke. " she whispered seductively, Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "I think…" Sakura got closer to him, his eyes widened, but he didn't move,

"…That you…" she got even closer, they were now so close that if she moved anymore they would be kissing. His eyes flipped back and forth from her lips to her eyes,

"….need to consider who you opponent is." And with that she closed the distance and touched her lips to his. An electric shock ran through Sakura, but she ignored it. Sasuke froze and his grip loosened on her hands. Sakura took the opportunity to form several hand signs. Sasuke backed up instantly, breaking their kiss, his hands working to form his own signs. Unfortunately he wasn't fast enough. Before he had finished Sakura 's fingers were glowing and she had touched his neck whispering "Chakura no teishi jutsu" (chakra stopping technique)stopping the chakra flow to his brain.

Sasuke's eyes widened in furry, "Sak..ur..a" he growled before passing out, landing onto of Sakura. Sakura removed her fingers and checked to make sure she hadn't permanently damaged his chakra paths. She was relieved to see she hadn't.

"That went well." Sakura grunted as she hefted Sasuke off of her body and gently setting him next to her. She sat up slowly. Pulling up her cloak to examine a large gash he had managed to land on her. She gave a quick glance over to Sasuke, then regretted it as her lips tingled. Sighing she got up and pulled a scroll from her sleeve. She opened it just as she reached the tree that held her battle ax. Yanking it out of the trunk, she quickly bit her hand and swiped the scroll. As half of the weapons in the battle zone disappeared with a poof, she quickly returned the scroll to its place in her cloak. She pulled out another scroll and lazily summoned her pack and medical supplies. She sat on the ground and rolled up her sleeve to start treating her wounds. She opened the pack and froze.

On the very top of her medical supplies rested the Chakra Pills Madra had packed for her. She remembered finding them as she and Sasuke picked up her things from the hollowed out log. She had been surprised and somewhat pleased.

Now she held them in her hand contemplating taking one. Her chakra _was_ really low, thanks to her fight with the young Uchiha. She rolled her eyes at the thought of him. But last time she took them, there had been some pretty bad side-effects. She went back and forth for a few minutes, before deciding that it may have just been a result of the transportation jutsu that had caused her to pass out and gave her a headache. She opened the bottle and quickly took one of the pills.

She wobbled on her feet as the dizzy spell hit her. She sat down in a huff and waited for it to go away. It passed in a few minutes, thankfully, and Sakura was immediately filled to the brim with chakra and a feeling of happiness. It felt great. She stood up and started treating her wounds. Then she walked over to Sasuke.

She gingerly grabbed his shirt so she could remove it and heal the wounds on his back and chest. It was what a good partner would do. Hell Sasuke had done it for her, and no way was she gonna let that prick surpass her in a competition of kindness._ I'm gonna regret doing this_ she thought as she lifted his shirt off of his body. And she did, regret it that is. She had to admit he had a fucking hot body, but she had seen pliantly of hot bodies so she ignored her fluttery thoughts. She inhaled deeply (regretting that as well when she was hit with his sent) and steeled herself to the job. She went into medic mode and quickly healed his wounds rather effortlessly.

She started to put his shirt back, but thought better of it when she saw how bloodstained it was. Sakura got up and walked over to her pack and started rummaging through it until she found what she was looking for. Somehow she knew Itachi would put it in there. She took the large Akatsuki cloak, _Sasuke's_ cloak, over to where Sasuke lay and draped it over him, laying the ring and hat next to him on the ground. She stared at the scene a while. _It's official. He's back in Akatsuki. _She thought …_ and he's my partner…_ she felt confused about that sentence. For some reason it made her legs feel weaker and made her stomach do flip flops. She decided that it would be good if she made camp here tonight. Judging by the sun it had to be about seven o' clock in the evening. She made a quick rock shelter and fire, using her battle ax to cut wood. She had almost laughed at the thought of using an ax that big just for cutting up some trees. In her opinion it was much more suited for chopping up her enemies. The whole time she kept sneaking glances at Sasuke. It concerned her that she was starting to get attached to his presence. She picked up Sasuke and put him the room of the rock house, deciding to put his cloak and ring on as an afterthought. She slid his ring onto his middle finger on his left hand, just one space from where hers was. She made a mental note to paint his nails when he woke up. She left the house with one glance back at the Uchiha.

"This is stupid, " she muttered to herself "you just haven't seen him in a long time. You'll get over it." Sakura looked away from Sasuke and the camp as she walked off into the forest to look for a stream to get water, food and if possible wash her cloths (and Sasuke's shirt which she held in her hand).

"You have to get over it" she growled with conviction smashing a nearby tree with her fist out of angst. Deciding that it made her feel better she continued to smash trees along her way.


	8. Chapter 8 The Hands

Chapter 8- The hands

Sasuke sat up the second he regained consciousness. He ignored the pain in his head as he did so and cursed loudly, the Eternal Mangekyo sharingan Spining wildly. _That fucking bitch!_ Was the only thought he could think. He quickly stood up from his place inside the rock formation (he concluded Sakura had created it) his chakra coming off him in poisonous waves. He barely had time to register that he was dressed in his old Akatsuki cloak with an Akatsuki ring on his finger before he started making hand signs. (He didn't even want to stop to think how much that unnerved him to see that ring.) His left eye started bleeding as he activated amaterasu. He then made a hole in the rock with chidori and walked out of the flame engulfed structure. _Fucking Sukura. _After a quick look around it was fairly easy to see which way Sakura had gone, the wake of destruction was fairly obvious. Without a second thought Sasuke sprinted off toward Sakura, promising to seriously injure her when he saw her.

Sakura was washing out Sasuke's shirt when she felt his aura flair. Flair with intent to kill. Sakura froze what she was doing in fear. _It's so…dark… I've never seen a chakra this chaotic…. _

Sakura quickly snapped out of her thoughts as the sounds of falling trees sounded through the forest. She judged about two seconds before her got to the river she was currently standing in... With his shirt in her hands…

"Fuck" she said.

Then Sasuke was there, both hands secured around her throat (Sakura didn't want to think about the odd sense of déjà vu going through her at the moment), his red eye immediately capturing hers in a furious glare.

And the world went red and black.

_**Tsukuyomi **_Sakura's thought echoed in the red sky as she turned around in a circle quickly, taking the area. There was nothing anywhere in the vicinity. She knew she was in a bad situation, Tsukuyomi could last for years, should the wielder wanted it to, all her thoughts and memories could be ripped from the deep recesses of her mind. All at the wielders command. All at Sasuke's command.

_**Fuck, how the hell am I going to get out of here? **_The thought, again echoed around the space eerily.

"You can't" came the cold reply. Sakura's eyes widened as she turned around slowly, to find Sasuke standing behind her. It felt like years as they stared at one another, but Sakura knew that time held no meaning in this realm. She knows everything there is to know about this technique, everythin g but how to use it, seeing as she didn't have the sharringan. Itachi hadn't left her with out that… particular experience during her training. In fact it was one of his favorite was to…punish her.

Sakura knew her thoughts could be heard by Sasuke. And watched curiously as he glared at her. She suspected he didn't like the fact she knew his clans secrets. And boy did she know them. Sasuke's glare deepened and Sakura grinned maliciously. She knew about the eternal sharingan, how in order to gain true power the Uchiha had to kill their family members. She knew about the secret bases and store rooms, how to get in, how to use the information found there. She knew about the history of the Uchiha, she knew of their sightless killings they had made in order to gain their respect and power. Did Sasuke know all of this? Sakura supposed he didn't considering the way his teeth were clenched. Sakura supposed he also didn't know the details of the uprising that was going to take place, but didn't because Itachi had mu-

Suddenly Sakura was rather uncomfortably chained to a wall with Sasuke glaring down at her.

"You know nothing" He said strained. Sakura merely cocked her head to the side and looked back up innocently, images Itachi had shown her swimming through her head, images of the massacre, of his and Sasuke's battle, of horrible things the Uchiha had done.

Next thing she knew Sasuke was sliding a katana into her stomach. She dutifully ignored it and choose instead to speak.

"Wow Sasuke, great way to treat your partner." She rolled her eyes. "If I had known this is what it meant to kick your ass, I would have come after you _years _ago."

Sasuke merely twisted the katana. Sakura winced out of habit. _**Damn that hu- **_Sakura cuts of her thought process and instead thinks about her plans. _**Let's see after this whole… mess blows over I have to finish up-**_

Sasuke brings out another katana and another and another and sticks them in her.

**-washing all my stuff. I should probably bath too. Hmm maybe force Sasuke to take one as well. Then I have to find dinner-**

Sasuke lets out a growl. And begins imbedding the blades into Sakura's flesh, twisting each to make sure she feels as much pain as possible.

_**And cook it. Lord knows Sasuke will be sulking the entire night. I swear he's just like Itach-**_

Her thoughts are broken by the sudden electricity running through her body via the 17 or so swords inside her. She gives up on planning, instead she waits for the jutsu to end patiently and silently, trying to keep her thoughts or misery buried so Sasuke won't hear. She supposes she is right. He is just like Itachi-

Suddenly it's over. She's standing back in the river, Sasuke's shirt still clutched in her hand as Sasuke storms off toward the camp. Sakura fights to keep her thoughts buried, as Sasuke vanishes from site. Once he's gone the flood gates open and all the agony she had pushed back comes to the surface. She covers her mouth with Sasuke's shirt as she sobs, tears rolling down her face. At the moment she is thankful for the hundreds of times Itachi put her through Tsukuyomi in an effort to force her control her thoughts and emotions, or else she would have broken down way before now. Heck she would have fallen apart the second she found herself in that red and black world had it not been through the years, or what felt like years, she had been tortured in the same place by Itachi. It was almost normal for her to be there, still scared the shit out of her though, she just didn't show it anymore in the presence of the torturer.

Sakura's crying stopped a few moments after it started as she collected her thoughts. Quickly swiping the tears from her eyes, Sakura went back to washing the cloths. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Sasuke returned to the camp site fuming. She had bested him, stayed strong in the Uchiha family's mental torture chamber! How was that even possible? She had thought about the multiple, no hundreds, of times Itachi had put her through it. Sasuke flinched at that. Anger flared up inside of him at his brother. How could he do that to Sakura? He felt confused, he was mad at Sakura for everything she had done over the course of the day, but he felt furious at his brother for hurting her, and _repeatedly_. Sasuke ground his teeth together and punched the nearest object. The bastard! How dare he? Then Sakura had gone as far as to liken him to his brother! He would never be like that… that monster. He was furious at himself for dropping to the level of Itachi. As Sasuke walked in to the camp, he could stop the nagging voice in the back of his head that kept saying

_You are just like him._

* * *

Sakura was just finishing gutting the fish when Itachi spoke to her.

_**Aren't you glad I trained you to be strong now? **_He asked with mild scoffed at his words.

_**Training? You tortured me till I gave into what you wanted. **_She stated plainly. Memories of her 'training' flashed through her head. She pushed them back along with the bile rising in her throat. _Be strong Sakura, _she mentally chided herself.

_**I was making you stronger. **_He replied impassively, sending images of her previous imprisonments within Tsukuyomi. She flinched at a particularly bad time when he had set her on fire and electrocuted her at the same time. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her chaotic chakra.

_**Whatever. **_She answered passively, gathering her things as she started to walk back to the camp. She was slightly nervous to see Sasuke again; he neck throbbed where he had strangled her. She was sure it was bruising. Itachi proceeded to continue showing her flashes of her training. Amusement radiating from him as her felt her confusion and fear.

_**I told you he was dangerous. **_Itachi drawled in a bored tone, but Sakura could feel his sick amusement at her fear. Sakura merely sent him a mental glare. She felt him mentally chuckle at her anger.

_**Go away Itachi, I'm busy. **_She said angrily. She was mad at him for reminding her of the pain she had suffered. It was too closely related to the pain she had suffered at the hands of Konoha. At the hands of those who were paying off the war debt. The hands…

Sakura stopped her thoughts, freezing in her walk back.

_**Oh dear, you are angry aren't you? Very well I will leave you be. **_Itachi said, and Sakura breath a sigh of relief when she felt his presence leave her mind. It was far to crowed as it was.

Calming her chakra, Sakura did a few breathing exercises, ignoring the pain it caused her throat to do so.

* * *

Sasuke looked up as Sakura walked back into the campsite. He watched as she looked at the smoldering remains of her rock formation. Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance before she turned and glared at him. He merely raised an eyebrow at her response. She sighed then set to work getting a fire started.

He felt anger well up inside of him as he watched her do a small katon to start it. How did she know that jutsu? It was an Uchiha family secret, meant for those of his clan only! It was a disgrace to have someone like her preform it.

"How do you know that jutsu?" He grit out at her in anger. She looked up at him blankly, before smirking.

"Itachi taught it to me." She answered amused at his anger. Sasuke turned away in disgust. It was silent in the clearing while Sakura prepared their dinner. Sasuke couldn't help watching her as she moved. IT was just so strange to see her move with the grace she now possessed. He didn't know what to think of it ( he chose to ignore the little voice that questioned if she was that graceful in bed aswell…). He also couldn't deny that she was strong too. As strong as he was, not that he would ever admit it out loud. He then wondered what had caused her to become as cold as she was. What could have possibly turned Sakura, one of the most loyal people he knew, against her beloved village? After some deliberation he decided to ask.

* * *

"Sakura." Her name rang through the clearing as Sakura took their dinner off the fire. Sakura turned to look at Sasuke curiously. He seemed to be struggling with something. Sakura walked over and took a seat next to him, annoyed that her lips tingled in remembrance of his. Sasuke was silent as she handed him a fish.

After a few minutes of silence Sakura got annoyed, "Just spit it out Sasuke." Sasuke looked over to her and Sakura sucked in a breath at emotion in his eyes. They were filled with confusion, his ever present anger and… compassion? Sakura shook the thought away, it was completely ridiculous. Sakura almost dropped her gaze from the intensity of the look he was giving her, before chiding herself that she shouldn't be intimidated by him.

"Why…" Sasuke paused as if thinking, "Why did you leave Leaf?" Sakura tensed up immediately. Fear filled her, before she squashed it down. The tension never left her as she attempted to keep the images back. It didn't help. She fought desperately as the walls she had built around her memory were ripped apart by that simple question. The memories started coming in waves. She was drowning in them.

Their hands. So many hands. Touching her. Everywhere. No escape. The pain. being torn in half from the inside out. Tsunade. The pain! They were everywhere. The hands. That room of fine silks and gold furnishing, that room of horror. Her prison. The hands. Her parents. The hands. A single sentence whispered "thank you" . The hands. The hands. The hands. She was dying. Protect Hinata. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands.

"Sakura?" Sakura felt something on her shoulder. NO! She didn't want it, no more! Kami, no more! She scooted away from the hand desperately. Not again! It hurt! The hands! They hurt her! Silent tears poured down her cheeks as she curled into a ball, rocking back and forth. No more! The hands! MAKE IT STOP! She begged something, anything, just make it STOP! NO MORE!

* * *

Sasuke watched at first in confusion, then in horror as he watched Sakura fall apart. She had gone stiff at his question before her eyes widened in utter terror. She seemed to be fighting with herself as her hands clenched and unclenched. He watched as she slipped from reality into her mind, her whole body shaking in fear.

"Sakura?" he questioned reaching out to shake her into reality. She turned to look at him and he shivered at the blank look of terror in her eyes. He started when he realized she wasn't seeing him, she was looking right through him. He watched frozen as she started screaming and scrambling away from him, tears spilling over her eyes. She curled into a ball and started sobbing,

". The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands. The hands." She sobbed. Sasuke sat, arm extended frozen and confused. The hands? What the hell did that mean? And why was she reacting like this? He had suspected she was mentally… unstable, but kami! This was something else. What the hell had that village done to her? Sasuke was suddenly furious at Konoha. His sharingan activated and he clenched his fist in anger. They would pay for whatever they did to her. He glanced back at her form, she was still mumbling but it was completely incoherent words. He felt a sudden need to wrap her up in his arms and shelter her form her own mind. His eyes narrowed at his thoughts. This was ridiculous! What the fuck was he supposed to do? He stood up and paced around running his hands through his hair. Her turned back to look at her, red eyes taking in her fluctuating chakra. He walked over to her, his mind made up. Her kneeled down to look her in the eyes. He was shocked to see her looking at him, in pain. His heart wrenched painfully.

"Sasuke, it hurts." Sasuke froze at the terror in her voice. She sounded completely broken. "Make it stop, _please, _just make it stop!" she whispered.

Hi sharringan spun once as he knocked her unconscious, her body slumped, all tension gone. His sharringan deactivated as he took a shaky breath and said something he had never said before.

"I'm sorry" Sasuke said as he gently lifted her up and moved her to her bed.

**A/N: hey guys. yes I'm sorry i haven't updated in a while! I have one word for you. IB. yes i have the pleasure of taking Ib high level math and high level phisics so i'm swamped! SOrry for the slowness, but i'm working on writing this any chance i get. I've also been playing around with a new story im writing called Nerviosa. It should be up soon aswell. Anyway i hoped you enjoyed this cahpter! **

**~Lots of love and chocolate!,~**

**Your Bismuth Killjoy,**

**Lexie**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9-The Misson

Sakura woke up feeling like she had been trampled by the Nine Tailed Fox, then dragged halfway across the continent. It felt like she had been asleep for ten minutes though she quickly realized that this wasn't possible due to the position of the sun. _How long have I been out?_, her thought echoed blankly around her head. She had very vague memories of the previous night, ones that she preferred not to re-live. She sat up slowly, sucking in a breath when her head swam dizzyingly. She steadied herself with one hand while the other went to her forehead. She closed her eyes for a second, willing her chakra to go to her head to relieve some of the pain. She frowned when she realized how low it still was. It shouldn't have surprised her that much though; she was always drained after a breakdown like the one last night. She winced as the memories came back, starting to hyperventilate before she forced the memories back into the cage that was her heart. Looking around quickly she found her bag next to her bed (she didn't stop to wonder _how_ she got into her bedroll) and reached for it quickly. Untying the drawstring was much more difficult for her than it should have been. After fumbling for a few seconds with the (accursed) string she finally got it open (not without a few choice words thrown in) before rummaging around. She didn't even stop to think before swallowing the white chakra pill. She stayed upright for a few more seconds before promptly passing out again, slumping over her bag.

Sasuke sighed from a tree nearby, having watched the whole ordeal, before jumping down to tuck her back in bed, grumbling the whole time.

The second time Sakura woke up she was feeling much better, and she could feel that her chakra reserves were completely full. She sat up smiling at that fact. Man she loved those pills. She looked up at the night sky, reviling in the stars. She took a deep breath, enjoying the feel of the warm breeze on her face.

_Crack_

Without thinking Sakura threw a kunai from her leg holster at the noise. A low grunt followed as Sasuke just barley dodged the projectile.

"Jesus Fuck, Sasuke!" Saukra exclaimed in surprise, her breath whooshing out of her, "a little warning before you sneak up on me!"

" Hn. I did, I snapped that twig." Sasuke drawled back as Sakura stood up. He watched her critically. The last thing her wanted was to have her breakdown on him again. It was bad enough the first time. He was not worried about her health. Not at all. Uchihas don't worry. It just compromised his plans.

Sakura sent him a nasty look while she rolled up her bedroll, before sealing it in a scroll from her sleeve. She proceeded to seal her bag as well. Sasuke just watched cryptically, making her flesh breakout in goose bumps. She stood up, returning the scroll to one of the many pockets inside her cloak.

"Are you just gonna stare at me all day?" She bit out at him cocking her hip, "I was under the impression we had a job to do."

Sasuke looked at her for a few more seconds. It seemed they were back to square one. He turned abruptly and started walking off into the forest.

"Hn."

Sakura scrambled after him, " 'Hn'! Seriously? Itachi and you could be fucking twins." Sakura grumbled as she followed Sasuke. She couldn't help but notice the ridiculous pace he set, there was no way she could keep this up for long. Not that she'd ever tell him that, the prick.

Sasuke tensed up, "DO NOT" he said forcefully, "compare me to him. Ever" He sped up even more. Sakura rolled her eyes before gritting her teeth and pushing after her partner. The trees no longer had any form, the world was a blur. The only way Sakura stopped herself from crashing into a tree was by following Sasuke's steps exactly. His sharingan was no doubt the only thing allowing him to see where to go.

They traveled in silence for a while, and Sakura was pleased that, despite all the chakra she was using to keep up with Sasuke, her chakra reserves stayed completely full. She flared her Chakra experimentally, and then did a quick jutsu.

"Kanaria no sakusei jutsu" she whispered as she focused her Chakra. Suddenly three bright yellow canaries appeared in front of her, flittering around happily, waiting for orders. Sakura smiled. Those pills were amazing; she still had full chakra, even after a creation jutsu. She had to remember to thank Madra. She quickly dismissed the bird, setting them free as she watched wistfully. Sakura was broken from her thoughts when Sasuke sent her a blood red gaze. It was almost… curious? Sakura frowned in confusion.

"You chakra…" he stated, brow furrowing slightly.

"What about it?" She replied defensively. She didn't like where this was going…

"It's not…" he paused as if looking for the right word, "It doesn't feel like you."

Sakura gave him an incredulous look, relief washing through her, it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. She was sure Sasuke was aware of her pills and their effects. She had been afraid he was going to lecture her in her use of them.

"soo?" she asked "Im not a clone if that's what you mean."

"I know it's just…" he started; "Never mind" Sakura rolled her eyes. Stupid Uchihas.

_**I heard that. **_

Sakura was so startled she fell off the tree. She panicked for a few seconds before she managed to flip around before slamming into the ground. At the insane seep she had been going she would have been nothing more than a splat mark. She breathed out heavily as she rolled to stop her fall, landing hard on her ass.

_Oh fuck! Ouch, that smarts. Itachi was listening, the creeper. I almost died! Fucking Uchihas._

_**I can still hear you…**_ Itachi said with mild amusement at her almost-biff

"Sakura?" Sasuke called as he drifted to the forest floor next to Sakura, who was attempting in vain to keep the remaining shreds of her dignity together jumped up and brushed off her red and black coat.

"Sorry" she said fumbling for an excuse "I, uh, slipped." She finished lamely. Sasuke just raised a single elegant eyebrow. _Elegant? Where did that come from? Kami sama im going insane._

Itachi's amusement grew at her comment. _** You haven't had a clumsy moment in years, dear Sakura. Could it be that Sasuke makes you nervous?**_ If Itachi could laugh, he would be doing so hysterically right now by the feeling he was sending across the link.

"Shut up Itachi." Sakura say, then froze when Sasuke's face turned to shock then to suspicion eyes narrowing dangerously. His sharingan was still activated, pinning Sakura in a bloody stare. _Oh fuck, I said that out loud didn't i…._

_**Yes**_ came the elders reply.

_**SHIT! This is all your fault you stupid Uchiha! **_ Sakura yelled at Itachi, sending as much rage as she could, only to have his amusement return to her. Apparently she had also sent her pure mortification with it across the link._** And stop reading my personal thoughts damnit! **_ She sent as an afterthought.

_**No thank you, I find your mind particularly…interesting… **_ Itachi said in pondering tone. Sakura growled in reply.

"Sakura, are you sure you're ok?" Sasuke asked looking genuinely concerned.

_Shit! I really need to stop doing that whole answering Itachi out loud thing... _

Wait WHAT? Was Sasuke actually concerned for her wellbeing? That's not possible! The heartless bastard asking her is she was ok? No way!

"I don't want to have to take care of you again. It was a pain in the ass." Sasuke continued. Oh thank Kami he was just being selfishly concerned. Yeah she could deal with that. The whole mushy 'im legitly concerned' crap she could not. So this was good. Right, she was not disappointed at all.

_**Little one, you are most entertaining. **_Itachi chuckled across the link.

_**Shut up! this is none-**_ Sakura broke off as she remembered that he had chuckled. She froze, and then it happened _again_. His deep rolling (and sexy, though she chose to ignore that particular thought…) laugh fell through the link with ease.

What. The. Fuck.

Itachi does NOT chuckle. Maybe she really wasn't ok. She was obviously hallucinating. How many pills did she take? She thought it was only one, but given the turn of events, she must have taken more.

_**I assure you that you are not going crazy. **_Itachi drawled bored a hint of amusement in his tone.

_**Oh, ya right you're one to talk. You're a fucking voice in my head. One that only I can hear… ya totally not crazy.**_ She replied sarcastically rolling her eyes mentally.

Quickly forming a hand sign, she released her charka "Kai" she muttered quietly. Nothing happened. Well at least she wasn't in a genjustu.

Sakura didn't notice Sasuke looking at her skeptically, "Sakura…"

She snapped out of her mental triad, deciding to act like this was happening on the off chance that it actually was. "Oh right," She said, "Let's get going to… where ever it is were going." Sakura pause confused, "where are we going?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "hn." He replied.

"Don't you fucking 'hn' me!" Sakura fumed, "Tell me where we're going this instant, or you are going there alone!" She said planting her feet firmly on the ground. Sasuke's eyes flicked down to the movement. He crossed his arms. His eyes flicked back up to hers, challenging her. She stared in to the black depths defiantly. She would not back down. They were a team damnit! He had better start acting like it.

"We are going to assonate one of the old council members at his private villa in Rain" He stated simply. Sakura tightened her hand into a fist.

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Really? And just how are we going to get past security to get close enough to do that? I don't care how amazing you are, there is no way we can single handedly fight off or sneak around the standard procedure ANBU that guard him." Sakura snorted. Like it or not, she wasn't powerful enough to take on 50 ANBU, even with Sasuke.

Sasuke remained silent, his eyes almost pleading. Sakura brushed it off as side effects of the weird morning she had thus far.

"How." She grit out.

"You will seduce him, and kill him when he is most vulnerable." He stated nonchalantly, not breaking the eye contact. Sakura sucking a breath, closing her eyes fighting back the memories. The hands.

_**Sakura, get a hold of yourself. This is not the time to get bent out of shape.**_

No. she would not show weakness. She exhaled slowly, controlling her emotions.

"Fine." She said tartly opening her eyes again. "Let's get on with it then."

Sasuke gave her one last burning look, before turning and continuing to run. Sakura took after him. This wouldn't be her first seduction mission. It wasn't even her first one since, she winced internally, _the incidents_. However they still made her nervous. They brought back to many bad memories. Most seduction missions were over before anything serious happened, Kami forbid she actually had to have sex with the guy. She shuddered. There was always a chance the mission wouldn't go as perfectly planned and she would have to bed the target. Sakura was no stranger to sex, she almost laughed out loud at the notion, but immediately felt solemn. Too many memories. She just prayed that Sasuke would never find out about horrible memories and experiences she had hidden in dark bedrooms with strange men. She would die before he found out.

**Hey guys! So this one i rather like, I know the transitions are kinda horrible, but i like the general development in this one. And yes, i do think Itachi is just, if not more, sexy than sasuke. I couldnt help having Sakura agree. :P whats better than having TWO Uchiha's at once, right? Anywho let me know what you think. I promise that there is more Sasusaku coming your way. Let's just say sasuke gets possesive and jealous... IB is still kicking my ass, so no promises for swift updates!**

**Lots of love and chocolate,**

**your Bismuthkilljoy,**

**Lexie**


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